ARTIN SCHONGAUER 


MAX GEISBERG 


M. KNOEDLER & CO., INC. 
14 EAST 57TH STREET 
NEW YORK 
1928 


CHRIST AS A GARDENER APPEARING TO 
MARY MAGDALEN 


Size of the original engraving 161 x 160 mm. 
_nong his prints I should award the prize to Christ 
und the Magdalen, for here the contents of the com- 
position have received an embodiment, the fervor, 
depth and delicacy of which have never been sur- 
Pesca 20 ae, Max GEIsBERG 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc, 


MARTIN SCHONGAUER 


BY 


MAX GEISBERG 


Director of the Landes Museum, Minster, Westphalia 


Translated from the German by 
EMIL H. RICHTER 


f 


Mera OEeOLER & CO. INc ~ 


I4 EAST 57TH STREET 
NEW YORK 


Martin Scooncaurr by Max GEIsBERG is 
number Two of The Knoedler Booklets. It is 
translated from the German by Emil H. Richter, 
formerly Curator of Prints at the Museum of Fine 
Arts, Boston. It is reprinted from Tur Print- 
CoLiEctor’s QuarTERLY (VoLuMEIV,No. 2 
pp. 102-128), by permission of the publishers 
J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, for pres- 
entation only, and is not for sale. 

The illustrations have been made, in every 
case, from original engravings in the possession 
of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. The dimensions 
are those given by Max Lehrs: Geschichte und 
Kritischer Katalog Volume V. Vienna 1925), 
since tt seemed inadvisable to record minute vari- 
ations, save in the case of MADONNA WITH 
THE APPLE. 


M. Knoedler &% Co., Inc. 
January, 1928. 


THE GETTY CENTER 
LIBRARY 


List of Illustrations 
Christ as a Gardener Appearing to Mary 


PAGE 


Magdalen Frontispiece 
The Annunciation 9 
Death of the Virgin IO 
Christ Taken Captive 13 
Christ Crowned with Thorns 14 
Christ Before Pilate iz 
Christ on the Cross 18 
The Entombment ; 21 
The Resurrection 22 
The Redeemer 25 
Madonna Standing 26 
Virgin Seated in a Courtyard 29 
Madonna with the Apple 30 
St. James the Greater Overcoming the Saracens 33 
St. Anthony Tormented by Demons 34 
Angel Holding a Shield with a Lion 37 


Woman Seated Holding a Shield with aSwan 38 
Wild Man Holding a Shield with a Greyhound 41 


Wild Man Holding a Shield with a Stag 42 
Wild Man Holding Two Shields 43 
A Foolish Virgin 45 


MARTIN SCHONGAUER 
14452-1491 


‘‘Schongauer’s productions all breathe a nobility 
and a perception of beauty which place him among 
the very greatest masters of the graphic arts.”? 


Max GEIsBERG 


MARTIN SCHONGAUER 


BY MAX GEISBERG 


Director of the Landes Museum, Muinster, Westphalia 
(Translated from the German by Emil H. Richter) 


HE cheery golden sky which arched over the 
6 eae ae artists of the fifteenth century, rejoicing 
in their success and fame, was denied to their Ger- 
man contemporaries. Petty conditions of life — the 
lack of encouragement and of large commissions, 
the narrow spirit of the guild — these and many 
other causes were to blame. Rarely did a man’s ar- 
tistic personality cause a ripple beyond the walls of 
his native town. 

Martin Schongauer, without a doubt the most 
eminent painter and engraver in the latter third of 
the fifteenth century, is one of the few exceptions. If 
we consider that in his lifetime his fame had spread 
from Kolmar, in Alsace, to Augsburg, causing young 
Burgkmair, while a journeyman, to seek employ- 
ment in his workship; if in later years young Diirer 
wended his way to the upper Rhine with like inten- 
tions, it is difficult to believe that it was the paint- 


7 


ings alone of Schongauer which carried his fame as 
far as Suabia and Franconia. It is far more likely that 
his engravings, numbering 115, and bearing, without 
exception, the well known mark (\ ¢&-‘§ no sooner 
left the press than they began their fruitful wander- 
ing from workshop to workshop and fair to fair. 
Countless copies in engraving and wood-cut multi- 
plied their numbers; welcome, inexhaustible sources 
of inspiration not only to painters and engravers, but 
to every artisan: to the carver of images, to the brass- 
founder and glass painter, to the goldsmith and the 
tapestry weaver, to the faience painter and to the 
embroiderer in beads—far beyond the confines of 
Germany. By means of the multiplying arts he was 
enabled to exert a far-reaching influence on the art 
of his time. And, as in Durer, we find the loftiest 
flights of his genius in his engravings, not in the few 
oil paintings which can claim to be authentic. 
Among these latter the most important, the life 
size Madonna in the Rosegarden, at present in the 
sacristy of the Church of St. Martin in Kolmar, bears 
the date 1473, thus providing an important item re- 
garding his life, concerning which our information 


8 


THE ANNUNCIATION 


Size of the original engraving 162 x 112 mm. 
From an impression formerly i in the British Museum, 
now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


Ee asia: is 


‘* 


DEATH OF THE VIRGIN 


Size of the original engraving 255 x 169 mm. 
From an impression on paper with the watermark 
Little Bull’s Head, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


is scanty enough. And yet Schongauer, who so suc- 
cessfully exerted his influence in shaping the vast 
and speedy development of adolescent engraving, is 
just the man of whose life we eagerly wish to know 
more. His father, Caspar, a goldsmith of Augsburg, 
settled in Kolmar with his wife before 1440, and 
was formally admitted to citizenship in 1445. Here 
their son Martin was born, presumably in that same 
year, or earlier, rather than later. He never married 
nor did he ever become a citizen of Kolmar. We 
know scarcely anything regarding his youth and his 
education. In 1465 he was matriculated at the Uni- 
versity of Leipzig, not as a student, most likely, but 
in some other capacity, possibly as a book-illumina- 
tor. His earliest engravings must have been made 
very soon thereafter, since we know that an engraver 
from Lower Germany, Israhel van Meckenem, made 
several copies of Schongauer’s monogram, probably 
about 1468, but surely before 1470, as he then had 
proceeded in his journeyings from the Upper Rhine 
into Franconia. It seems reasonable to suppose that 
this was done with the intention of increasing the 
sale of his copies by affixing to them a mark well 


Il 


known to the public. Now the letters in Schongau- 
er’s monogram are not always of the same shape; in 
his earliest twelve engravings the shanks of the M are 
drawn vertically, whereas they slant in all his later 
prints. Note that even at that early date Meckenem 
had already copied the later version of the mono- 
gram; it may be well, therefore, to assume from the 
earliest engravings of our artist a date somewhat 
earlier than heretofore accepted, say about 1465. 
The large painting above mentioned was done seven 
years later. In 1488 Schongauer took up his abode 
in Brisach, close by Kolmar, and there he died Feb- 
ruary 2, 1491. Durer arrived at his workshop a lit- 
tle later, only to find that he had passed away. 

If one considers that a man like Meckenem exe- 
cuted over 600 plates in forty years, it would seem 
as though the twenty-six working years, approxi- 
mately, of Schongauer, were but imperfectly filled | 
by his one hundred fifteen engravings. Either his ac- 
tivities as a painter were engrossing or, in later years, 
he no longer handled the graver. Several copies by 
Meckenem, which for reasons of technique can hard- 
ly be dated as late as the eighties, are done after 


I2 


ce tm et 


CHRIST TAKEN CAPTIVE 


Size of the original engraving 164 x 116 mm. 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


‘ ; eR on ay Na 
a SSS, TLE aac ee ee NE aa Saat eae ee 


CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS 


Size of the original engraving 161 x 113 mm. 
From an impression formerly in the collection of Fried- 
rich August II (Dresden), now in the possession of 

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


Schongauer’s engravings which must be placed rel- 
atively late in his career. In other words, it would 
seem as though the large majority of the master’s 
plates must have been engraved between 1466 and 
1480. 
II 

Our first sensation in looking at the engravings 
of Schongauer will be one of strangeness. The man- 
ner of presentation has about it something unnat- 
ural, unreal, to which we must become accustomed. 
His saints are pictured with emaciated bodies, with 
frail spider-like fingers, curls spreading and rigid, 
garments draped with excessive fullness, folds with 
wrinkled breaks and edges of the cloth swinging in 
great curves, veil-ends whipping as in a gale, queerly 
proportioned figures, with diminutive busts, mincing 
gait, and timid affected movements. This, together 
with unwonted forms in the landscape and restless- 
ness in all the elements of the composition, sums up 
one’s first impression. Whoever is familiar with Ger- 
man art of the late Gothic period will realize that 
these are peculiarities which, in a degree, are com- 
mon to all forms of art at that time, but he also will 


a5 


perceive, that in this respect, Schongauer is an ex- 
tremist outvying others in his devotion to the ideals 
of beauty current at his time. All his creations breathe 
a predilection for refinement, gracefulness and exces- 
sive richness of form, verging on mannerism. There 
is little room left for impressive grandeur, simplicity 
or strong emotion. There is hardly a trace of the 
wonderful feeling for nature which marks the work 
of Witz or Van Eyck less than a generation earlier. 
Nowhere in the landscape of Schongauer have we 
the sensation of looking out upon the actual world, 
a feeling evoked by Diirer’s smallest picture. The | 
master of Kolmar does not seem to have carried a 
sketch book when out of doors. How entirely differ- 
ent are his clouds in Christ bearing his Cross—the 
one instance in which they are not conventionalized 
—from those in the 4 pocalypse. Wherever he has 
followed nature closely, as in the minute branching 
of the bare little trees, one sees that he was inter- 
ested only in the play of lines which he reproduced. 

The greatest realism is found in his rendering of 
animals, and the genius displayed in welding com- 
ponent parts of various animals into living, fantastic 


16 


CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 


Size of the original engraving 162 x 115 mm. 
From an impression formerly in the collection of K. E. 
von Liphart, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


CHRIST ON THE CROSS 
Size of the original engraving 162 x I15 mm. 
From an impression on paper with the watermark of 
Small Bull’s Head, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co,, Inc. 


creatures in his Temptation of St. Anthony,is a mat- 
ter of admiration for all time to come. In contrast 
with this, the lack of realism in his human figures is 
all the more striking. He seems to have drawn from 
life only in his earliest years, contenting himself, 
later on, with a general command of bodily forms, 
subjected, in accordance with his ideals of beauty, 
to radical changes. Portrait-like, characteristic heads, 
though generally in great favor in late Gothic times, 
are not to his taste and he uses them—violently car- 
icatured — only in the executioners of the Passion 
scenes. It is surprising how well this master, who 
rarely succeeds in correctly drawing a limb with its 
joints, can, at times, convincingly express the most 
violent action. 

Whatever shortcomings may exist in Schongau- 
er’s prints, are outweighed by his inexhaustible cre- 
ative power. This reveals itself even in his draping 
of the figures, which, apart from his earliest produc- 
tions——still reminiscent of the study of the model— 
assumes the role of a decorative element born of the 
imaginative resources of the artist. Even the stiffest 
silk, if draped on the model, will not produce such 


Se 


a diversified play of fold-hills and veils, fold-breaks, 
and eye-shaped twists of the cloth. Nor does precise- 
ly the same draping occur in any two figures, kneel- 
ing, sitting or standing, and doubtless the engray- 
ings of Schongauer owed much of their vogue and 
wide distribution to this versatility. They must have 
been intended as models for fellow-artists less well 
endowed with the inventive faculty; there is no other 
explanation possible for series like the 4 postles or its 
feminine parallel—the Wise and Foolish Virgins. It 
is noteworthy that models of drapery, as those in the 
last-named set, constitute really the only novel theme 
in Schongauer’s prints. Other subjects, such as Saints 
and Evangelists, fancy armorial designs, ornaments, 
genre pictures, animal subjects, even designs for gold- 
smith’s ware, all are things which already had been 
done. But just because of this limitation, the rich 
inventiveness of the master achieves its greatest tri- 
umphs by repeated treatment of the same themes; 
that of Christ on the Cross occurring no less than six 
times. These versions are identical in their essen- 
tials; the same helpless grief in the figures of Mary 
and John, in Christ an unchanged “tempered piti- 


20 


Pm, %. 
LS gill we 


THE ENTOMEBMENT 


Size of the original engraving 163x116 mm. 
From an impression on paper with the watermark D 
with a double cross, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


THE RESURRECTION 


Size of the original engraving 163 x 116 mm. 
From an impression on paper with the matermark D 
with a double cross, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


ableness”’ to use Wolfflin’s harsh but striking phrase. 
These pictures illustrate successive stages in Schon- 
gauer’s development. We see the master busy on the 
same theme time after time, with the same inexhaus- 
tible powers of imagination and the same ease which 
we have just admired in the draping of garments, al- 
ways bent on finding some new form of expression, 
some new and more perfect solution of the problem. 
In the history of engraving this was an entirely new 
phase, for in the only analogous case, the Annuncia- 
tion prints of Master E. S., the artist is preoccupied, 
not with questions of perfection of form, but with 
matters of perspective. Let us place an earlier en- 
graving, say a late Madonna of Master E. S., side by 
side with the Virgin of the Annunciation of Schon- 
gauer. We note that the latter assumes plastic round- 
ness like a statue, against a white indeterminate sur- 
face. The lily and the tankard near her seemingly 
owes its existence to the fact that, as an afterthought, 
the master decided, for reasons of composition, to 
let the veil flutter to the right instead of the left, as 
first intended, and of which faint traces are still dis- 
cernible. Master E. S., on the other hand, gives us a 


es 


glimpse of a cozy chamber, with beamed ceiling, pat- 
terned floor slabs, leaded windows, a vaulted altar 
niche and a house-altar with figured side curtains, 
in short, an almost endless array of details. The same 
holds true of the landscapes; the print by E. S., rep- 
resenting St. John in Patmos, even shows us St. 
Christopher in the background, crossing the stream. 
In a print of the same subject, by Schongauer, a boat 
and a ship on the horizon are the only accessories, 
and they are needed to explain the nature of the dis- 
tant expanse. This elimination of all non-essentials, 
in which German art of the fifteenth century is usu- 
ally so rich, should not, of course, be taken as con- 
trasting with his richness of imagination and of 
form. It is a matter of artistic policy carried out by 
the master with more and more thoroughness. All 
the genre-like details, disclosing his astounding pow- 
ers of observation and of refreshing Teutonic hu- 
mor, are discarded before long. Brocade, velvet, the 
spectacles used by the Apostle for tracing the lines 
while he reads (Death of the Virgin), the small fig- 
ures in the distance, dogs, lizards, stags and other 
animals — none of these are found in later plates. 


24 


THE REDEEMER 


Of the same size as the original engraving 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


MADONNA STANDING 


Of the same size as the original engraving 
From an impression on paper with watermark Triple 
Mountain, with full margins (115 x 112 mm.) in the 

possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


Schongauer focusses the attention more and more 
closely, concentrating all his powers on the perfec- 
tion of the form, according to his ideal of beauty. 
We need not wonder, therefore, that finally the sin- 
gle figure replaces former groups of figures and ex- 
clusively enlists his energies, just as Durer ends his 
career with the four grand figures of Apostles and 
Evangelists. These are tendencies which, in a gen- 
eral way, point unmistakably to Italian rather than 
German art. The possibility that the Master of Kol- 
mar came in touch with southern influences can cer- 
tainly not be denied, but an endeavor to guess how 
this might have occurred would be rash indeed. 
Were it true we would then have to admit that he 
remained more staunchly true to his German self 
than his great fellow-artist in Nurnberg. 

Whoever attempts the chronological arrangement 
of the engraving —undated without exception— of 
the predecessors of Schongauer, must pay close heed 
to the increasing power of observation of the differ- 
ent artists, to changes in their rendering of objects, 
in their perspective and their technique. Nearly all 
these props fail when we approach Schongauer, the 


27 


more so because his prints were produced within a 
comparatively short space of time. Yet from his ar- 
tistic evolution we can form, as shown above, a fairly 
clear idea of his development. In him we see the first 
painter who enters the field of engraving, heretofore 
an exclusive domain of the goldsmiths. To these— 
with their subtle, painstaking manner, ingrained in 
them by their craft — engraving owes its purity of 
style, which consists in using to the best advantage 
the possibilities based upon and limited by material 
and tools: Semper’s “justification of material.” In- 
deed, these productions of the early period are un- 
equaled to this day and will remain models of style 
for all time to come; models which must be con- 
sulted if graphic art is to preserve its proper techni- 
cal expression and its purity. 

With the advent of the first painter in the ranks 
of engravers on copper many things which have be- 
come second nature to the painter, but which are 
more or less foreign to the goldsmith, now enter 
into engraving. One item already mentioned is the 
stronger assertion of a purely artistic intention in 
composition; a second is a greater assurance and 


28 


ERE Sa BONE OA SEA SS St RE i 


VIRGIN SEATED IN A COURTYARD 


Size of the original engraving 166 x 119 mm. 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


a onl Ss Os oa 
MADONNA WITH THE APPLE 


A portion of the blank paper has been trimmed in this 
impression. It now measures 161 x 80 mm. 
Formerly in the Albertina (Vienna), now in the pos- 
session of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


greater practice in drawing and in seeing, the habit 
of study from the model; a third and very import- 
ant item is a sense of the plastic roundness of the 
figures represented, a point which the painter com- 
monly endeavors to emphasize with all available col- 
oristic means, to the point of allusion. One need but 
make a comparison with draped figures of Master 
E. S. to realize how flat the fullness of his folds ap- 
pears and how real are Schongauer’s figures. It is as 
though the third dimension suddenly had been re- 
vealed in his engravings. It would be unfair to say 
that the pictorial character of the compositions is 
likewise a new achievement not in evidence before 
Schongauer, or that he is the first to remove his fig- 
ures from the immediate foreground. All these are 
characteristics of Master E. S. but intensified in 
Schongauer, thanks to his greater knowledge of per- 
spective, his keener perception of light and shade, 
and also owing to the plastic element in his figures 
and the constant striving for unified lighting. He | 
obviously strives to differentiate foreground, middle 
distance and background by means of variations in 
the manner of graver work; in his later prints, for 


31 


the sake of stronger contrasts, he is apt to eliminate 
the middle distance. 

While color gives to the painter an easy means for 
contrasting various objects, the only resource which 
the engraver commands is the scale of tones pro- 
duced by his system of lines. Schongauer seeks 
much more definitely than his predecessors to de- 
tach the individual figure from its surroundings; he 
achieves his purpose by toning the background. Fur- 
thermore he also attempts to bind together entire 
groups of figures by means of similar values in tone, 
and thereby to provide repose and an easy survey of 
the whole diversified composition. This reveals it- 
self surprisingly in the large plate, Christ bearing 
his Cross,in which it is true, the master has lavished 
all his strongest effects on the main group in the 
middle, where Christ is falling under the cross, leay- 
ing only a like tone for the background at the left 
and a lighter one for the immediate foreground at 
the right. Later on he has succeeded in brilliantly 
solving similar problems in scenes of the Passion, 
such as Christ on the Cross and the Entombment. 

Another very curious fact, closely connected with 


32 


‘DUT “'09 X& Io[psouy “pw Jo uorssassod 
ay) ut mou ‘(euusTA) evunIog;y ey ut Aprouioy ‘uorssoidut ue Woy 


‘uu TEP X 6QT SutAvssUD [BUISIIO DY) JO 9ZIS 


SNAOVUVS AHL ONINOOUAAO YALVAUO AHL sAWvl “Ls 


—— 
ee 


eae aaa eae meee Oe, 


ST. ANTHONY TORMENTED BY DEMONS 


Size of the original engraving 312 x 230 mm. 
From an impression on paper with the watermark 
Gothic P, now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


Schongauer’s activities as a painter, has never yet 
been mentioned, strange to say, namely his endeavor 
to render textures and colors. We are not concerned, 
just now, with the color illusion produced by associ- 
ation of ideas, the suggestion to the eye of the be- 
holder of certain definite hues, such as black or blue, 
which is an important innovation of French por- 
trait engravers of the seventeenth century. We refer 
to a rendering of the relative value of different col- 
ors, a discovery heretofore universally claimed for 
Diirer. In this connection the glittering coat of the 
kneeling king in the Adoration of the Magi, the 
doublet of St. Martin, the pillow in the Crowning 
of the Virgin should be examined. One might also 
study the shimmering trunks of the birches, the dark 
garment of Christ, in the Taking of Christ, the 
cloak of the Magdalen in the Entombment, and 
many other instances. I hardly need to dwell upon 
the fact that Diirer afterwards left his predecessor 
far behind in both respects, and that he is the first to 
undertake the interpretation of atmosphere filling 
and deepening his pictures. The birth of such po- 


tentialities, however, is found in Schongauer. 


35 


To differentiate between painter and engraver by 
the terms artist and artisan most assuredly would be 
a mistake. In medieval Germany they are synony- 
mous. Yet certain peculiarities which we are pleased 
to call artistic, are found in Schongauer and his 
prints. For instance the self-consciousness, unknown 
till his day, which finds expression in the signing of 
all his engravings with the initials of his name. The 
few cases in which we can trace corrections on the 
plates, viz: the strengthening of shadows, etc., show 
these to have been guided by artistic considerations, 
never by the desire to increase the number of im- 
pressions the plate might yield, which is a common 
practice with Meckenem. Schongauer seems not to 
have printed from his plates after they had reached 
a certain degree of wear; whatever worn impres- 
sions there are, must date from subsequent owners 
of his copper plates who made capital out of his 
fame. As a matter of fact, there is even a portrait of 
Luther with the monogram of Schongauer! While 
trial proofs of Diirer’s prints reveal the careful prep- 
arations made for his engravings, the essential out- 
lines of the composition drawn in with the dry- 


36 


ANGEL HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A LION 


Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc, 


WOMAN SEATED HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A SWAN 


Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. 
From an impression, formerly in the collection of Fried- 
rich August II (Dresden) now in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


point, Schongauer apparently seems to have no such 
preliminary outline, judging from corrections which 
were evidently made subsequently on the plates. In 
the Resurrection, for instance, the rise of ground un- 
der the Magdalen has only been added to bring the 
kneeling figure into the foreground. If the hills are 
covered up with the hand, the figures represented 
no longer look at each other. In the scene on the 
Mount of Olives one sees a rejected outline of 
Christ’s profile in the air; the position of the angel 
having made it impossible. 

If all the above peculiarities seem due to the fact 
that Schongauer was a painter, it must likewise be 
borne in mind that he himself was familiar with the 
goldsmith’s craft. His father, Kaspar, who was liv- 
ing in 1481, as well as three of his brothers, Paul, 
George and Kaspar, were all goldsmiths, and it 
seems not impossible that Martin fared like young 
Diirer, whose father, likewise a goldsmith, first ap- 
prenticed him in this craft and gave his sanction to 
his becoming a painter only after he had learned 
neatly to practice the craft first learned. That Mar- 
tin was as familiar with hammer and pincers as with 


= pe) 


the brush might well be considered proven by his 
masterly and workmanlike designs for the Crosier, 
the Censer, and by the splendid chandelier in the 
Death of the Virgin. 


Ill 


A subject of no small importance is Schongauer’s 
technique and the advance in the art of engraving 
to be ascribed to him. This is not easy to define. En- 
graving on copper commences with parallel shade 
strokes, extremely delicate shadings, blending, to 
the naked eye, into an effect similar to an India ink 
wash. In the hands of Master E. S. the separate lay- 
ers of lines become clear, distinct and assume an in- 
dividual réle. Cross-hatchings are often found in his 
plates, but usually there are several layers criss- 
crossed over each other in the deep shadows. Par- 
tial shadows are dissolved into little dashes near the 
light; the rounding of bodies is modeled by short 
lines in contiguous rows. In the matter of technique 
Schongauer, without doubt, is a pupil of Master E. 
S. who may have lived in Basle or in Strassburg, 
even though there is no evidence of their having 


40 


WILD MAN HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A GREYHOUND 


Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


SEN MC SS 
WN AS \\ 


WN 
Ws 
an, N 
aN 
Pa 


Dy 
s 
fez 


WILD MAN HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A STAG 


Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. 
From an impression, formerly in the William Esdaile, 
Robert Balmanno, and British Museum collections 

now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


> 


WILD MAN HOLDING TWO SHIELDS 


Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. 
From an impression formerly in the William Esdaile, 
Robert Balmanno, and British Museum collections; 

now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


been in personal contact with each other. No trace 
is found of any influence of the great monogramist 
in the earliest engravings of Schongauer, the Ma- 
donna crowned by Angels, the Small Crucifixion 
and the Man of Sorrows. In later plates such influ- 
ences become clearly evident. The strange parallel 
lines in the sky in the Temptation of St. Anthony, 
increasing in depth toward the top, can only be ex- 
plained by comparison with two corresponding plates 
of Master E. S. The posture and forms of Christ, in 
the early Crucifixions, in like manner seem influ- 
enced by his predecessor, but, to my mind, the echo 
of the elder master is nowhere more clearly evident 
than in the Madonna with the Parrot, which is 
closely related — in facial form —to the latest Ma- 
donna pictures of Master E. S. Finally, as we know, 
there is— among the fancy armorial designs —a 
Schongauer engraving actually copied after Master 
E. S., the only copy among his prints. In another 
figure of that series the costume is of the kind we 
are wont to find in the engravings of the mono- 
gramist. 

Schongauer starts out, in regard to technique, 


44 


A FOOLISH VIRGIN 


Size of the original engraving 147 x 108 mm. 
From an impression in the possession of 
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. 


from the height to which his. predecessor had car- 
ried graver work. Thence he, in turn, progresses. 
With him, for the first time, the lines in their entire 
length follow the curves of the body; another series 
crossing the first, indicates the rounding of the 
form. The transition from dark to light is effected 
by breaking the lines into little hooks. Extensive use 
is made of simple, plain cross-hatching, but in the 
depths of shadow, he is obliged to add a third, 
fourth and additional series of shading strokes. 

However consciously he may differentiate the 
strength of his graver lines (for instance, in fore- 
and background), the idea never occurs to him to 
infuse dynamic differences into each separate stroke; 
that was a stride in technical development reserved 
for his heir. 

Schongauer’s productions all breathe a nobility 
and a perception of beauty which place him among 
the very greatest masters of the graphic arts. Among 
his prints I should award the prize to Christ and the 
Magdalen; for here the contents of the composition 
have received an embodiment, the fervor, depth and 
delicacy of which have never been surpassed in art. 


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